A/69/340 61. The Special Rapporteur recalls general recommendation No. 35 of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in which the Committee highlighted the role of teaching, education, culture and information in the promotion of inter-ethnic understanding and tolerance, guaranteed under article 7 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD/C/GC/35 and Corr. 1, para. 30). In this regard, the Special Rapporteur refers to his report on the role of education in preventing racism (A/HRC/23/56) and reaffirms that education continues to be an effective antidote to deep-rooted racism and discrimination, including its manifestations in sports. The Special Rapporteur also refers to the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly, in which the potential of sport is recognized as a universal language contributing to the education of people on the values of diversity, tolerance and fairness and as a means to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and encourages States to use the unique educational potential of sports to combat manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. 62. The Special Rapporteur expresses concern that national legislation and legal frameworks in some States do not provide sanctions for the propagators of racism and discrimination at sporting events. The Special Rapporteur encourages all States to incorporate into their national legislation international and regional norms and standards in order to appropriately and effectively strengthen their domestic system to prevent and combat racism and discrimination in sports. 63. The economic primacy of football over other sports in certain parts of the world, particularly in Europe, as well as the wide media coverage enjoyed by football overall, seems to have placed this particular sport in a spotlight in the debate on racism and discrimination in sports. As such, many of the legal frameworks and policies discussed in the present report have been initiated by football sports federations. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur expresses concern that measures for the prevention of racism, racial hatred, xenophobia or any other form of discrimination are not as equally developed in other sports. Successful practices and policies should be extended to all sports, individual and team, including those with less economic power and visibility in the media. The Special Rapporteur is also concerned that while racial and religious discrimination is condemned in the regulations of many sports federations, there are no established comprehensive disciplinary mechanisms and enforceable measures to prevent and sanction acts of racism and related intolerance in their activities. International, regional and national sports federations are encouraged to review and expand their practices with regard to combating racism and discrimination, in particular those related to education of athletes and supporters. 64. The Special Rapporteur is of the opinion that policies and initiatives to combat racism and discrimination are more effective when combined with reliable data about the occurrence, location and content of such incidents. As such, he encourages States to implement reliable and accessible monitoring systems for the cataloguing of racist, homophobic, sexist and other related incidents in sports. 20/21 14-59616